Table of Contents

The National Instruments Getting Started with NI-DAQmx Series is aimed at helping you learn NI-DAQmx programming fundamentals. Through video and text tutorials, this series will take you from verifying your device's operation in Measurement & Automation Explorer (MAX) to programming data acquisition applications using LabVIEW. It is intended for both the beginner who wants to learn how to use the DAQ Assistant, as well as the experienced user who wishes to take advantage of advanced NI-DAQmx functionality.

1. Overview

Using a LabVIEW 2009 project, you can create an executable from your NI-DAQmx application and bundle it into a distributable installer. This installer can be configured to include you system's hardware and task configuration from MAX as well as the NI-DAQmx driver or one of the NI-DAQmx runtime distributions.

2. Creating an NI-DAQmx Executable

Click on the Source Files category to select which VI's you want to use in your application. You must have at least one VI in your Startup VIs list. Any VI's that are called dynamically should go into the Always Included VI's list.

In the Preview category, click on Generate Preview to see what files and executables will be created and where they will be located.

Once you are satisfied with your build specifications, click the Build button. Your executable will be automatically built and placed in the specified directory.

3. Building an NI-DAQmx Application Installer

Open your LabVIEW project, right click on Build Specifications and choose New » Installer

In the Properties window, configure your installer's name, destination directory, and version number.

In the Source Files category, move your application to the Destination View. In this window, you can create new folders on the target system and configure where your application will be installed. You can also choose other (not project related) files that will be installed on the target system.

In the Shortcuts category, you can create the shortcuts to your application that will be installed on the target system. Some of the places you can create shortcuts in are the Start Menu, Startup Folder and Desktop.

In the Additional Installers category verify that the NI LabVIEW Run-Time Engine is selected as well as the DAQmx driver. If using DAQmx 9.0 or later you will have different DAQmx Run-Time options. Some of these are slimmed down versions of DAQmx used to decrease the size of the footprint left on the target machine. Click on each of the DAQmx Run-Time options for a detailed description on what is included. Deselect Automatically select recommended Installers as well as Only display runtime installers and select NI-DAQmx Application Development Support.Note: Unless you are an expert with DAQmx it is strongly recommended that you do not use the NI-DAQmx Core Run-Time.

In the Hardware Configuration category, you can choose to include a hardware configuration from MAX that can include MAX channels, tasks and devices. You can choose an existing file or launch the MAX Configuration Export Wizard by clicking the Configure button.

This information is very out of date and
does not address problems that can
occur. For example, the DAQmx
installers I download from NI are NOT
recognized as valid by the installation
builder. How does one resolve this kind
of issue? This kind of troubleshooting
information is what I'm really looking for
here.

App install doc not current
- Nov 12, 2006

By Fred Brandeberry, e.l.marsden wireless inc.

I recently downloaded DAQmx 8.3, and
installed on my LV8.01 machine. When I
try to generate a standalone from my
project, I do NOT get the same screen
shown in this web document. hence,
it would seem it needs updated.